Scott Panetti, a Hayward native whose death row case drew national attention around the issue of protecting the rights of mentally ill defendants, has been scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 3 in Texas.

Panetti, 56, has won stays of execution before. He was a day from being executed in 2004 when that order was stopped. The new execution date was made public Thursday.

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Panetti's death sentence for the murder of his wife's parents 15 years earlier. The court found that Panetti had insufficient understanding of why he was being put to death. Panetti said he believed he was being executed not for the killings but for preaching the Gospel to his fellow death row inmates.

The 5-4 ruling was considered a rebuke of the lower court's decision, but it stopped short of establishing a new standard for competency.

Panetti's case later was sent back to court to re-evaluate whether he was sane enough to execute. The lower courts agreed with state lawyers that Panetti was exaggerating his illness and reinstated the death sentence. Various appeals failed, including when the U.S. Supreme Court refused in October to reconsider the case.

Appeals attorney Greg Wiercioch said Panetti is still incapable of understanding the reason he is being put to death. He said the execution would be a "miserable spectacle."

Panetti, a stand-out football player on the 1976 Poynette High School team, had a long and tortured psychiatric history. His case was detailed in a 1999 story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

His parents, Jack and Yvonne Panetti, live in Jump River in Rusk County.

Panetti's case since has attracted international attention for the issues it raises around how to treat mentally ill defendants.

Panetti was discharged from the Navy and put on disability after he began hallucinating.

He spent several months in the psychiatric ward of the veterans hospital in Tomah. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression. Over the next 10 years, he would be hospitalized 14 times, including various court-ordered commitments.

Panetti moved to Texas where his family ran a ranch. His first wife divorced him after he buried their furniture in the backyard, claiming it was a cleansing rite to keep the devil away.

Sonja Alvarado, his second wife, tried to have him committed after Panetti came after her with a knife.

She took his guns to the local police but they returned the weapons to Panetti, saying they had no legal right to keep them from him. Later that week, Panetti used the guns to shoot and kill Joe and Amanda Alvarado, his wife's parents.

Panetti refused to allow a lawyer to represent him. He dressed in a purple cowboy suit and issued subpoenas to President Kennedy and Jesus Christ. Legal observers called the trial a "farce" and a "circus."

"He was a bird's nest on the ground," one of his former lawyers said.

F.E. Seale, a psychiatrist for more than 50 years who examined Panetti several times, told the court he was appalled by the case.

"I thought to myself, 'My God. How in the world can our legal system allow an insane man to defend himself? How can this be just?'" he said. "I not only thought that Scott was incompetent but that it was not moral to have him stand trial."

Eventually, Alvarado would agree. In 1999 she signed a petition asking for her ex-husband's death sentence to be overturned.

About Meg Kissinger

Meg Kissinger is an investigative reporter for health and welfare. She was a 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative reporting and is a two-time George Polk Award winner: 2013 for "Chronic Crisis" and 2009 for "Chemical Fallout."